We will no longer play the games of many independents who would claim they are us and attack us in any manner. Archbishop Victor has been involved in Court lawsuits already and plans more legal action in the near future.
Many of the Eastern Orthodox and the Oriential Orthodox for the most part refuse to pray with other Christian denominations. We feel a closer relationship should be established with other Christian denominations.We are not saying the Euharist must be involved but we should invite non-orthodox Christians to special community prayer services and other gatherings. To outsiders we appear unfriendly and unchristian.
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Please note: The Ross Stefan is a reproduction, but still a somewhat valuable piece since his originals are selling in the thousands
REMEMBER - Only 2 defining forces have ever offered to die for you - Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your soul and the other for your freedom.
Definition of a Veteran
A Veteran - Whether acive duty, retired, National Guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check, made payable to the "United States of America", for an amount of "up to and including my life".
That is honor, and there are far to many people in this country who choose to no longer understand it.
Author Unknown
Abp. Victor seeks someone interested in becoming a deacon or priest, or already in Holy Orders to assist him.
We continue to hear of folks dying at home alone and not being found for weeks. We also hear they have no funeral arrangments which leads to hard feeling among family members. It is time for everyone to plan for the future. If you had a family you planned for the education of your children, you planned your meals, you planned your vacations but you ignore the important fact - You will die!
we suggest you get your affairs in order if your 40 or 80! Look into funerals and related costs. To be buried you need a coffin, a grave lot, should consider a headstone and you need to tell a few family members and friends what your last wishes are. Leave money for your burial or buy a prepaid package. If you only get part of the costs paid it will help the family and friends you leave behind.
If you live alone consider having a friend share your home or apartment. If you are injured or ill you will have someone around to help you even if its only to call an ambulance or the police. If you insist on living alone have someone call you every day to check on you.
We recently discovered some infringers closer to home and have turned this over to the attorney. If they continue we fully intend to take legal action in US District Court against them.
I for one am tired of the individuals who claim they are clergy and that they own our Church. We have decided to handle this as the Attorney General of one State advised recently and we filed written complaints with the FBI Corporate Fraud bureau as well as the local State Attorney for the jurisdiction where the individual lives as well as local police.
Anyone who takes the property of another is clearly not a christian clergyman, acts in an unchristian manner by attacking us, and is legally guilty of theft and probably fraud - identity theft, theft by deception, Service Mark infringement and dilution of the mark and fraud. Theft of Church property - be it a name or logo or a Chalice or Icon is all theft.
We are clearly and legally who we say we are. We hold all legal ownership rights to or names and logo. I say names because we have and use a number ourselves as well as those groups who merged with us and continue to use their original names not taking the Theocacna name.
There are way to many independent groups running around claiming to be Anglican, Orthodox or "Old" Catholic. Many are paper clergy and churches meaning they generally do not hold services, many have little or no formal theological training and fail to follow the canons of the Church they claim to be.
Do not misunderstand what I am saying here. I in no way mean that the independents are all like this. There are many good people who have small active ministries. They follow the canons and are serious about their ministry. The problem is being able to tell the active clergy from the paper ones.
We believe the only way to grow is to establish one large American Orthodox Church from the active splinter groups. The same goes for the Old Catholics and Anglican jurisdictions. These merged jurisdictions would be able to have Churches and clergy in many areas, more than they have ever dreamed of, and they could serve the people.
Our doors are open to True Orthodox Jurisdictions as well as Old Catholic and Anglican jurisdictions who could comfortably join us and use the Western Rite Service Book and the Liturgies, posted on this website, we use.
Unity will lead to growth and allow us all the recognition we are entitled to. Those who remain small independent jurisdictions will be the paper groups who only seek titles and make claims of being who and what they are not.
On behalf of the North American Holy Synod an offer of Unity and/or merger was sent to the Synod of the OCA. Due to their problems over the past year or more we felt it was the Christian action to take. We need to unite American Orthodoxy for the laity and clergy. People tell us of all the in-fighting they encounter and the feeling they get that one Orthodox Jurisdiction will act as if they are better or more Orthodox than others.
Update: Dec. 15, 2008
I was speaking to a bishop friend yesterday
and his comments about SCOBA Orthodox was to the effect they all want to be
little kings. He had not even read the following older article about how
unchristian these clergy act towards each other.
This came about during a discussion of how a local (to him up north) priest speaks about most of the other Orthodox. He has even mentioned that we are a "Paper Church" I believe attempting to claim we do not exist except on paper. His error is simple! He speaks against other (SCOBA) Orthodox sometimes, then he acts buddy buddy towards them at other times.
Due to their past Schismatic acts and refusal to correct the Schism we clearly state that these individuals "have no Sacramental Authority". Thus they injure the souls of all those who seek the Mysteries in their Schismatic Churches.
Following is the earlier posting;
This evening (Aug 7, 2008) as I dozed in front of the television I received a phone call from a friend who is neither Catholic or Orthodox. He was telling me how he had contacted some priests from various "canonical" Orthodox Churches like the Greeks, a ROCOR church and others in his area and how they all bad mouthed the other Churches they are supposed to be in communion with. His comments were how unchristian these priests are and how surprised he is now that THEOCACNA has survived all these years.
I considered mentioning, again, how these so called canonical groups are in Schism with us and that we ignore them for the most part.
He also has been talking to a Roman Catholic priest he met not long ago and this whole experience has left a bad taste in his mouth.
More recently this same friend has stated something about it being sad the Roman Catholics have placed such barriers up preventing people from joining the Catholic Church.
We need to seek out other active jurisdictions who may be viewed as independent based on their background and how they started but who are serious about Orthodoxy and suggest they consider joining with us. We have members who have no priest near them, we have others seeking a church home and we are not there. We need to grow and we need to gather members and clergy.
It has been claimed by a number of independents that Archbishop Victor "owns" the 1928 Church Corporation. Of course this is false. The original (1927) Church Constitution gives the Archbishop-President much authority and past Synods have added to that authority. With this authority the Archbishop has acted to protect the Church from others who would attempt to take over the corporation illegally or by internal deceit. Now Archbishop Victor does legally own the (Registered) Service Mark which consists of the logo of the Church but also the name of the Church which is part of the logo. He has filed a declaration of Incontestability and the name & logo are his even if the Marks Registration is not renewed.
The clergy and members of this Church do not associate with the SCOBA ethnic clergy who were part of and party to the Schism in American Orthodoxy. These same jurisdictions will claim we cannot be canonical since we are not in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarch but to be in communion with schismatics would make us schismatics also and would lead to our excommunication and being deposed.